1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a disk driving device which rotatively drives an information recording medium, as a magnetic disk or an optical disk, for recording or reproducing information and, more specifically, to a disk driving device provided with a mechanism capable of automatic loading and automatic ejection of the information recording medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Among various disk driving devices for recording and reproducing apparatus which record information in and reproduce the information recorded in a disk-shaped information recording medium (hereinafter referred to as "disk"), a disk driving device which holds a disk cartridge (hereinafter referred to as "cartridge"), namely, a hard case made of a synthetic resin and containing a disk therein, on a holder and mounts the disk through the holder on rotative driving means for recording or reproducing handles the disk indirectly through the hard case. Accordingly, various automatic disk loading mechanisms for such a disk driving device have been proposed.
Such a disk driving device is proposed by Utility Model Application No. 60-30849 made by the applicant of the present application. As illustrated in FIG. 34, this proposed disk driving device has an automatic loading/ejecting mechanism comprising, as principal members, a lever 51 attached to a shaft 50 for swing motion, a slider 53 capable of reciprocating along a guide shaft 52, and a coil spring having one end connected to the lever 51 and the other end connected to the slider 52. More specifically, one end and the other end of the coil spring 54 are attached pivotally to the free end of the lever 51 and to a part of the slider 53, respectively, to interlock the swing motion of the lever 51 and the sliding motion of the slider 53. As illustrated in FIG. 35, the slider 53 is provided with an arm 59 having a pin 59 capable of engaging a recess 57 formed in a cartridge 56. As illustrated in FIG. 36, when the cartridge 56 is inserted into the disk driving device, the pin 58 engages the recess 57 from the lower side of the cartridge 56. After the pin 58 has engaged the recess 57, the slider 52 is allowed to move in a predetermined direction for loading operation.
The cartridge loading operation of this disk driving device uses the resilience and displacement of the coil spring 54. FIG. 37 is a diagrammatic illustration particularly showing the mode of displacement of the coil spring 54 during the cartridge loading operation. Referring to FIG. 37, initially, the coil spring 54 is located at a waiting position indicated by continous lines, and the lever 51 is restrained from swing motion by an ejecting lever 60 (FIG. 35). As the slider 53 is pushed backward, namely, in the direction indicated by arrow X, by the cartridge 56, the coil spring 54 is turned counterclockwise about the spring retaining hole 61 of the lever 51. As the coil spring 54 is turned counterclockwise, the distance between the free ends of the coil spring 54 decreases gradually until the coil spring 54 is turned to a position indicated by broken lines, where the free ends of the coil spring 54 are on a line P perpendicular to direction indicated by arrow X and the resilience of the coil spring 54 is increased to a maximum. The cartridge 56 is pushed into the disk driving device by hand or by mechanial means until the coil spring 54 is turned to the position indicated by broken lines.
While the coil spring 54 is turned from the position indicated by continuous lines to the position indicated by broken lines and the slider 53 is moved in the direction indicated by arrow X, the front end 62 of the arm 59 returns gradually upward along the rising slope 64 of the control member 63 of a holder 67 (FIG. 36) and, finally, the pin 58 projects from the cartridge passage 65 and engages the recess 57, so that the cartridge 56 is connected to the slider 53.
Referring again to FIG. 37, upon the passage of the spring retaining hole 66 of the slider 53 retaining one end of the coil spring 54 across the line P, the free end of the coil spring 54, hence the slider 53, is pushed in the direction indicated by arrow X by the energy stored in the coil spring 54 as indicated by alternate long and two short dashes lines in FIG. 37. Thus, after the spring retaining hole 66 has passed across the line P, the slider 53 is moved by the resilience of the coil spring 54 along a guide groove, not shown, formed in the holder 67 in the direction indicated by arrow X, so that the cartridge 56 is pulled automatically into the disk driving device.
An unlocking projection 68 provided at the rear end of the slider 53 comes into abutment with the lug of a locking lever, not shown, and the cartridge is located right above the rotative driving means before the coil spring 54 arrives at the position indicated by alternate long and two short dashes lines. Then, the cartridge 56 is mounted on the rotative driving means by a mechanism, not shown, for recording or reproducing operation.
After the completion of the recording or reproducing operation, the eject lever 60 is driven by an eccentric cam which is driven by a motor, not shown, to turn the lever 51 so as to move the coil spring 54 and the slider 53 forward for cartridge ejecting operation.
In the above-mentioned cartridge carrying mechanism of the known automatic loading mechanism, the pin 58 attached to the free end of the arm 59 which swings in the direction of the thickness of the cartridge drops into the recess 57 of the cartridge 56 from the lower side of the cartridge 56, and then the slider 53 moves in the direction of arrow X to load the cartridge 56 on the disk driving device, which is undesirable in view of reducing the thickness of the disk driving device. If the cartridge carrying mechanism is designed so that the pin 58 will engage the cartridge 56 on the lateral side, the control member 63 needs to be bent laterally, which is undesirable in respect of the area size of the disk driving device. Furthermore, since the cartridge 56 is moved relative to the holder 67 for loading and ejecting operation, malfunction attributable to the friction between the holder 67 and the cartridge 56 is liable to occur, which deteriorates the reliability of the disk driving device.